County elections office gets top marks

Orange County's elections office received a glowing county grand jury review for its running of the November election. The report released Wednesday praised the Registrar of Voters for accuracy, security and efficiency.

"The Registrar of Voters Office is a model for other County Departments and Agencies to emulate," the report says. "The Registrar fosters a climate of technological innovation, teamwork, efficiency, purpose and introspection that results in employees that appear to be highly competent, cheerful and driven to providing outstanding customer service."

The few recommendations include working with county officials to obtain more office and warehouse space, and additional preparations for handling an election during an emergency such as an earthquake.

Neal Kelley (pictured in 2008), who runs the elections office, was appointed registrar of voters in April 2006.

The 18-page report also addressed the issue of voter fraud and found that generally, "actual voter fraud is greatly exaggerated." As for local instances, it relied primarily on Kelley, reporting that "the Registrar of Voters felt that voter fraud issues were minor (the few cases of possible voter fraud would not have changed the election results) due to the many checks and cross checks."

The report did not mention the last publicized instance of substantial alleged voter fraud in the county, the 1996 upset of incumbent Rep. Robert K. Dornan by Loretta Sanchez. A congressional House Oversight Committee investigation later found that 748 improper ballots were cast and that 624 of those were from immigrants who were not citizens, although many were in the process of gaining citizenship.

Most issues listed under the "umbrella" of voter fraud were "errors in the poll books, errors in registration records" and similar paperwork problems. It said the most common voter irregularity occurred when a voter cast a mail ballot, forgot they did so, then attempted to vote in the polling place.

"Actual voter fraud large enough to affect the outcome of an election requires a significant degree of conspiracy and organization," the grand jury said. "The ability to keep secret such a large-scale operation is directly affected by the number of people who know about it. Common sense dictates that such a criminal enterprise would come to the attention of federal and local authorities."